Effects of the Depression on different groups in society - copied from Ethan's notes directly Flashcards
What was the unemployment rate in 1930 to 1932>
Worker unemployed
1930: 4 million
1932: 12 million
1933: 12,830,000 -24.75% of society (peak)
Hoover takes office 1933
Following FDR’s alphabet agencies
1937: 7,700,000
Poverty + Homelessness
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Many could not pay mortgage/ rent. Ended up homeless.
“Hoovervilles: shanty towns of packing crates, abandoned cars and other cast off scraps-sprung up
Gangs of youths, whose families could no longer support them, rode the rails in boxcars hoping to find jobs.
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Henretta: Director of relief, Philadelphia described to Senate Committee scenes when relief funds exhausted for 11 days, spring 1932
1 family no food for 2 days, father pulled dandelions from city park for dinner
Some families only stale bread, for 3 ½ cents/ loaf
women
Women’s sense of self-importance increased as they struggled to keep their families afloat (James Henretta)
Struggling with less: wage cuts + partial/ full unemployment -> reduced household budgets. (Median household 1935-6: $1160/ yr)
Domestic violence epidemic (Govt: women’s lack of sympathy, men’s depression)
Economise for family survival: own clothes, canned fruit/ veg, baked several dishes in oven at once.
Marriage rate: 10.14/ 1000 (1929) to 7.87/ 1000 (1932)
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Birth rate 21.3 live births/ 1000 (1930) to 18.4 (1932). 14% fall
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US vs 1 Package of Japanese Pessaries (1936) gave doctors wide discretion to prescribe birth control, legal exc in Mass + Conn
Abortions illegal, but 8-10K deaths/ yr, unsafe conditions
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1940: 11M women worked (¼ workforce). Discrimination. 1936 Gallup Poll- 82% said women shouldn’t work if husband did.
Women’s fields (eg. clerical) suffered less from econ contractions than men’s (eg. heavy industry). Reinforced stereotypes about types of work women should have.
Farmers
Ag recession. Farm prices fall 61% (1929-31). Total income $13b to $5.5b (1932)
Agricultural Adjustment Administration and agricultural reforms to cut overproduction led to farm income rising $4.5bn in 1932 to %6.9bn in 1935 and crops such as cotton had increased 6.5c in 1932 to 10c in 1933 per round
Dust Bowl 1930-6 (CO, NM, TX, OK, KA) force 340K to migrate SW. Many to CA via Route 66
CA’s crops (citruses, grapes) required much transient labour during short picking seasons filled by SW migrants.
400K farms lost to foreclosure (1929-32)
African Americans
Langston Hughes: “The Depression brought everybody down a peg or two, and the Negroes had but few pegs to fall”
Competition for trad-black jobs. 50% black unemp in Harlem
Many AfAms able to find work through relief programs
1932: 40-50% of black workers in Chicago unemployed
75% still in south (1940). Only 20% owned own land, others were farm hands, sharecroppers.
March 1935 Harlem Race Riots: lack of jobs. Triggered by arrest of black shoplifter, alleged severely beaten by police. 4 black ppl killed, $2 million property damaged.
